Kia EV9 or Sorento PHEV

I'd say your figures are ballpark right, although nobody has a crystal ball here

Up to you really. Do you want to lose 50k in depreciation (€90k down to €40k) in the car that you fell in love with over the next 5 years or lose 35k in depreciation (€65k down to €30k) in a "meh" car? That's €3k per year extra depreciation

If you take into account the huge savings in fuel, maintenance, tax, etc. between the two, I'd say the total cost of ownership is very similar between the two cars even if you do average to a bit below average annual miles. Possibly even a bit cheaper to own the EV9…

I was talking to my neighbour who has the big electric bmw suv and he bought it with the PCP since the prices of used evs are so volatile he said it meant most sense for him to go this way.

Worthless in 5 years. Of course. And in the middle of that period you would have to replace the battery, possibly twice, which costs €20k every time. And don't park the EV near the house as it will likely go on fire. Also excellent advice to just ignore depreciation. It is only by far the biggest factor in total cost of ownership. But hey, let them eat cake!

We’ve just replaced the Sorento with an EV9. Were they still offering the K4, we might have gone with that, but it’s only the K3 now in the PHEV. In two years, you can expect the next generation Sorento will be there. I do expect the EV9 to have hefty depreciation though.

Comparing the two cars. Loved the Sorento, grand size, it was well equipped, okay power wise and fairly economical for our journeys. Downside, is that every so often it would hesitate for a fraction of second when you’re trying to drive off. As if it was confused which system to use. This wasn’t just a fault with our car. Drove me mad, had the same hesitancy with a dgt Sharan before. Have to say, facelift doesn’t really work for me either.

The EV9 is large. Too large for some places, and can be a pain in the arse in some multi story car parks. Space obviously inside is fantastic. Spec is superb as well. I found the entry level model unacceptably slow though. The GT line doesn’t suffer here, it’ll do sub 5 0-100 (you knock off another .7 if you download some pack that’s apparently included, but I can’t be arsed) which is more than you need for a car that size. I’ve only done one longer drive so far. Cork to Dublin (265km) left with 478, arrived with 180. Did a fair bit of overtaking trucks.

That's €20k of the depreciation, you won't be suffering. Makes a big difference imho. Nice find!

I have a 221 K4 Sorento and was considering changing it for next year. The K3 (Anniversary) version that Kia is selling is not the best spec for the price so I'll wait for that to go go back to K3 & K4 (hopefully) and consider again when the 2025 spec is published. I'm on my third Sorento now so I am a bit biased and I believe they offer one of the the best bang for buck ratio when it comes to large SUVs.

The EV9 is great looking and great spec but the cost and potential excess depreciation is also my concern. A big issue IMO is the release of the EV5 which is predicted to hit UK \ IE some time next year. It's already on sale in AU and NZ. It looks like it will fit between the EV3 \ Sportage and the Sorento in size which would be prefect for me anyway and I suspect will dampen sales greatly for the EV9. What will it do to the used EV9 market, I'd say it will add to the depreciation.

I'm going to wait anyway and hopefully get a GT or K4 version of the EV5 when it arrives next year. Quite likely that will still be less of a cost than the Earth EV9, which IMO, especially without AWD and a few of the other extras, is at way too high a price for what you get.

Think it's a 5 seater but not far off the size of the sorento

This is my second k4 spec. I think the current 2024 offering spec is not worth the money tbh. Hopefully next year if they don't bring back k4, it might be called something else but similar if not better spec than k4.

Otherwise, I'll be looking again at the kodiaq, Nissan or others, as the market seems to be getting busier and quite competitive at the model size and spec to cost level I.e. 60 to 65k.

It’s your business but I’d be slow to spend €80K on any EV9 unless you intend keeping it long term. Even low mileage 2024 ones seem to well under £50K in the UK already.

Wow, hello Mr Armchair Psychologist! You are fairly astute, and you've opened up my eyes to think differently about this all.

First of all, I'm not normally one to care at all about depreciation or what my car is worth day to day. Car is bought for a function. In the past we've generally bought with cash, HP or CU loan. And run the cars into the ground until there is next to no trade in value. However, this is the first time we're buying a 'nearly-new' car (because my wife's Disco died and we are sick of things going wrong) and our first ever PCP.

I was a PCP skeptic until now but starting to see how it can work. I drive long distances for work so it would never work for my car, i'd blow through the limit. But for my wife's car, its not an issue.

But its the PCP that's making me concerned about depreciation. They list that stupid MFV (min future value) figure and that has me all confused. For this car, Supposedly the MFV in 3 years is €32,000. And in my mind I'm thinking SURELY the car will be worth way more than that in 3 years. Probably closer to €50,000. So I feel like I'm missing a trick.

And as we love the car and expect to still love the car in 3 years time, I can't imagine us getting rid of it. We'd normally keep a car going longer than that, maybe another 3 years; but maybe we'd trade it in for a newer, keep the repayments, and do another 3 years in a newer KIA.

Then something you said has shattered my world… my kids won't be young forever. They won't be home forever. In 6 years time my eldest will be turning 18. She will either be driving or moving out (you'd hope!). So we won't need a 6/7 seater forever…. we might just need 2 cylces with this car, then move to something else.

That's reinforced my decision this car is the right car for us right now, but also made me a little sad.

Thanks to you all!

€550 a month payment, with €27,000 deposit

As you say, it’s useful to my family. Worth €10-15000 a year as a utility.

I'm probably in the same market as you I think. I would like a GT-line, but I'm waiting for the prices to come down. 80k for a 1+ year old car that costs 87k new (probably less with some haggling) is crazy. 8% depreciation in just over 1 year… Less than 6 years of warranty left, no free charger install. You'd be cheaper off haggling a bit on a new car and buy that instead. Possibly get free servicing included for a few years.

I won't buy one until the prices get closer to the 60k mark myself. As the car was only really introduced at the start of 2024 the second hand market isn't great yet. We'll have to wait for a few more to hit the market.

Might be worth exploring the option to import a 2023 EV9 from the UK with a trader that can recover the UK VAT ?

I’d suggest looking at a low mileage 2023 EV9 instead. These are at £47K ish = €54K. VRT should be less on a 2023 too. Warranty isn’t an issue as this will transfer to KIA Ireland and can be used with any KIA dealer here. Credit Union or any other financial institution doing car loans should be able to help you with finance if you can’t fund the purchase yourself. Customs should also be due which is why it might be worth talking to a trader that imports regularly from the UK ?